Katie Smith to visit India as sports diplomacy envoy

By
Washington Post editors

The U.S. Department of State and the NBA announced yesterday that they will tip off their 2011 sports envoy program next week with a trip to India that will feature the Mystics' Katie Smith and NBA Hall of Famer Gervin.

Gervin and Smith, a two-time WNBA champion, will visit Mumbai and New Delhi Feb.22 to March 2, where they will conduct basketball clinics with Indian youth, meet with university students, and participate in local community events in underserved areas.

From a State Department news release:

In addition to the events in India, current and former NBA and WNBA players will lead programs in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, India, Jordan, Republic of the Congo, Uzbekistan, and Venezuela during the 2011 sports envoy season. The full lineup of players will be released at a later date.

Gervin, a former San Antonio Spur, is a three-time NBA champion and was voted to the NBA's 50 Greatest Players list in 1996. Smith is a six-time WNBA All-Star for the Washington Mystics.

In addition to participating in events with the U.S. Department of State, Gervin and Smith will attend the finals of the Mahindra NBA Challenge, the largest, multicity basketball league in the country, which the NBA conducts in collaboration with the Basketball Federation of India (BFI).